How to Do a Category Analysis to Bring Online Products Into Physical Retail

So you’ve decided you want to graduate from selling an Amazon product and build a real, durable brand—one that could eventually scale into a $100M+ business.

You already know that the best path forward is going omnichannel. Relying solely on Amazon or DTC eventually leads to margin compression, rising CAC, and platform dependency. Physical retail offers distribution leverage, brand credibility, and more predictable demand.

But once you decide to take your products from Amazon or Shopify into brick-and-mortar retail, the real questions begin:

• Are you actually competitive in the category?

• How should your products be priced in retail?

• Should you sell singles, bundles, or multipacks?

• Which retailers make sense for your brand—and which do not?

If you’re new to retail, this can feel overwhelming. Fortunately, retail market analysis is not complicated—it’s just methodical. It requires time, attention to detail, and discipline, but not advanced analytics or insider access.

This guide walks through a practical, repeatable methodology for analyzing a retail category so you can confidently position your product, price it correctly, and present a compelling case to retail buyers. The same framework works for independent retail, mass retail, or a hybrid go-to-market strategy (which is often the smartest approach).

Step 1: Getting Started With Retailer Selection

Your first job is to define where your product belongs.

Start by identifying retailers that naturally align with your category, price point, and customer profile.

Start With the Obvious Players

For most categories, the major retailers should be easy to name:

• Category leaders (e.g., Dick’s Sporting Goods or REI for outdoor)

• Broadline mass retailers that carry your category (Target, Walmart, Home Depot, etc.)

• Club stores like Costco or Sam’s Club if your product could support their pricing, pack sizes, and margins

You do not need dozens of retailers. Four to six well-chosen stores are usually enough to understand the competitive landscape.

Don’t Skip Independent Retail

Equally important: visit independent and specialty stores.

• They often carry niche brands that haven’t made it to mass retail yet

• Their merchandising tends to be more experimental and trend-driven

• You may be able to speak directly with an owner or manager who actually buys product

These insights are often not available in big-box environments, though your learnings can be valuable in any context.

Step 2: Data Collection — Getting Into Stores and Taking Pictures

Once you’ve identified your target retailers, it’s time to do the real work: in-store research.

Go to the section where your product would live and document everything.

What to Photograph

For every relevant competitor product, capture:

• Clear photos of the product on shelf

• Shelf tags and price labels (make sure they’re legible)

• Close-ups of packaging details, claims, and materials

• Wider shots of the full aisle or section for context

Why shelf tags matter:
Products get moved, sold down, or temporarily displaced. Shelf tags tell you what the buyer intended to be in the assortment, which is critical for understanding planograms and category logic.

Be thorough. This is not a quick walk-through—it’s the foundation of your analysis.

Step 3: Data Processing — Turning Photos Into Usable Information

This is the least glamorous part of the process, but it’s the foundation of your analysis, so take it seriously.

You now need to transcribe everything into a structured spreadsheet.

How to Organize Your Data

• Create one spreadsheet

• Use separate tabs for each retailer

• Keep identical column headers across all tabs so you can compare data cleanly

Core Data Fields to Capture

At a minimum, include:

• Product description

• Brand name

• In-store price

• Online price (if different)

• UPC

• SKU

• Store item number

• Color

• Size / dimensions

• Weight

• Primary materials

• Quantity per pack

• Number of facings

• Planogram or category location

• Available online? (yes/no)

• Key claims or callouts

• Amazon price (if applicable)

• Amazon rating and review count

• Country of manufacture

Use retailer websites to verify unclear details and fill in gaps. Add category-specific fields where relevant (e.g., grams of protein, thread count, decibel rating, etc.). And, of course, ignore any irrelevant fields.

This spreadsheet becomes a long-term asset. Save it, and update it annually as assortments change.

Step 4: Analysis — What You’re Actually Looking For

You are looking for patterns. Where does your unique product offer fit in all this? Fit can mean a number of things, but basic pivot tables, filters, and simple charts will surface most insights you need.

Pay particular attention to:

Pricing Patterns

• Are there clear price bands?

• Are there major gaps between entry-level and premium products?

• Is pricing compressed or widely spread?

Pack Size & Format

• Are most products singles, bundles, or multipacks?

• Are case packs consistent or all over the map?

• Do stores favor convenience or value sizing?

Positioning & Claims

• What benefits are emphasized repeatedly?

• Are quality, sustainability, performance, or aesthetics driving differentiation?

• Are there strong claims online that are missing in stores?

Merchandising Signals

• Which products get the most facings?

• Are certain colors or styles overrepresented?

• Are popular online SKUs absent from retail?

These insights tell you where buyers believe value exists—and where opportunity may be hiding.

Step 5: How to Use This Data

Now that you can see the whole picture, use your analysis to define a coherent retail product strategy:

• Maybe your online bestseller fits retail perfectly

• Maybe retail needs a simplified SKU

• Maybe pricing or packaging needs to change entirely

What matters is that your proposal is data-driven. When you walk into a buyer meeting and can say:

“Here’s how your category is currently merchandised, here are the pricing tiers, and here’ the gap our product fills…”

—you immediately separate yourself from 90% of brands pitching purely on their own merits in a vacuum.

Note: Bring the data with you to the meeting. Review it with the buyer. Use it to justify pricing, pack size, and assortment decisions. Buyers respect brands that understand their category as well as they do, and if you teach them something they don’t know, you instantly make yourself valuable. 

Final Thoughts

Retail market analysis is not optional if you want to scale beyond ecommerce. It is the difference between guessing and having an actual strategy.

Done correctly, it allows you to:

• Choose the right retailers

• Price products confidently

• Design SKUs buyers actually want

• Present a compelling, defensible retail strategy

This process takes time—but it dramatically increases your odds of success.